to whoever cared to come into his presence. Nothing could be more comic
than the audiences he gave to his poorer subjects. Often there came to
him dull peasants and workmen of the lowest class; the poor duke would
sweat and rage to make them hear reason, in which he was sometimes
unsuccessful, and his petitioners would go away terrified, desperate, and
furious. As to the pretty country maidens, he examined into their
complaints in private, and though he seldom did anything for them they
went away consoled.

The subsidies which the French Crown was foolish enough to pay him for a
perfectly useless service did not suffice for his extravagant expenses.
He loaded his subjects with taxes till the patient people could bear it
no longer, and some years after had recourse to the Diet of Wetzlar,
which obliged him to change his system. He was foolish enough to wish to
imitate the King of Prussia, while that monarch made fun of the duke, and
called him his ape. His wife was the daughter of the Margrave of
Bayreuth, the prettiest and most accomplished princess in all Germany.
When I had come to Stuttgart she was no longer there; she had taken
refuge with her father, on account of a disgraceful affront which had
been offered her by her unworthy husband. It is incorrect to say that
this princess fled from her husband because of his infidelities.

After I had dined by myself, I dressed and went to the opera provided
gratis by the duke in the fine theatre he had built. The prince was in
the front of the orchestra, surrounded by his brilliant Court. I sat in a
box on the first tier, delighted to be able to hear so well the music of
the famous Jumella, who was in the duke's service. In my ignorance of the
etiquette of small German Courts I happened to applaud a solo, which had
been exquisitely sung by a castrato whose name I have forgotten, and
directly afterwards an individual came into my box and addressed me in a